When falsification is the only path to truth
Citation:
Cowley, M. & Byrne, R.M.J., When falsification is the only path to truth, Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 2005, Bara, B.G., Barsalou, L. & Bucciarelli, M., Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005, 512 - 517Download Item:
When Falsification is the Only Path to Truth.pdf (Published (publisher's copy) - Peer Reviewed) 171.0Kb
Abstract:
Can people consistently attempt to falsify, that is, search for
refuting evidence, when testing the truth of hypotheses?
Experimental evidence indicates that people tend to search for
confirming evidence. We report two novel experiments that
show that people can consistently falsify when it is the only
helpful strategy. Experiment 1 showed that participants
readily falsified somebody else?s hypothesis. Their task was
to test a hypothesis belonging to an `imaginary participant?
and they knew it was a low quality hypothesis. Experiment 2
showed that participants were able to falsify a low quality
hypothesis belonging to an imaginary participant more readily
than their own low quality hypothesis. The results have
important implications for theories of hypothesis testing and
human rationality.
Author's Homepage:
http://people.tcd.ie/rmbyrneDescription:
PUBLISHED
Author: BYRNE, RUTH MARY JOSEPHINE
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Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science SocietyPublisher:
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum AssociatesType of material:
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